And their source is hard numbers from Swiss bank UBS. "Singaporeans have a low purchasing power of only 39.9, comparable to Kuala Lumpur (39.5), Warsaw (34.0) and Bogota (33.7). [...] the ordinary Malaysian citizen has about the same domestic purchasing power as the Singaporean."
"Hard numbers"? Not quite. And I had forgotten how conservative European bankers are.
the ordinary Malaysian citizen has about the same domestic purchasing power as the Singaporean.
And what is this "domestic purchasing power"? Apparently it is the amount of money the average Singaporean has left after paying for non-negotiables like housing.
The average home in Singapore is a modern 3-bedroom high-rise apartment. 87% of Singaporeans own their homes.
Most urban Malaysians live in project housing subsidized by the government.
So the average Singaporean has enough money to make mortgage payments on a nice apartment with all modern amenities plus has a good amount of disposable income.
The average urban Malaysian can never afford to pay a mortgage on a nice apartment, but instead lives in rundown government housing with shared toilet facilities.
I find it interesting that one of the indices in the article of how economically disadvantaged Singaporeans are is that they have to work almost 75% as hard as a Russian has to in order to buy an iPod nano.
Sure sounds like increadible, grinding poverty to me.